But now a new threat looms! And there's only one team that can solve it, so it's time to put the old band back together. There are two possible ways to do this: One is that the old leader picks up where he left off, seeking out his old friends and convincing 'em to join up with him again. But just as often, the old leader isn't available - may be dead, or may have retired, or may have simply disappeared. Or maybe he's just not interested at all. (In that case, he's the first one they visit, only to get turned away, but he'll probably show up anyway just when the rest of the crew has been gathered, or later, in the nick of time to save the day.) Anyway, if it's a former minor character who's gathering the band, that means that he or she will probably be the new leader.

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Either way, various things will happen during this episode. A member may be reluctant, and require our heroes to jump through hoops to get him on board. Several may be working jobs that are oddly appropriate, or ironically inappropriate, to their former role. Extra characterisation will occur by showing what kind of activities are taking up their free time, or what kind of family they've started. A former big-shot is likely to have become completely washed-up, turned into a drunk and/or bum, and the heroes will have to revitalize his burning spirit to bring him back to his old glory.

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Examples:

Happened in the anime proper, too. After Nergal disbands the crew, Ruri just about singlehandedly re-hijacks the ship.

A strange version in Bubblegum Crash — Sylia calls everyone together to announce that they're reuniting; Nene thought they were being called together to announce that they were breaking up.

After BECK break up temporarily, Koyuki tries to reunite everybody from the band, though he has great troubles finding Ryuusuke, who went road-tripping in America.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon, Yoko, Rossiu, the Black Siblings and Viral put the Gurren Brigade back together to fight the Anti-Spirals.

Pre-timeskip part of 20th Century Boys fits this trope really well. When Kenji realizes that disasters he and his gang imagined about during their elementary school years are happening in reality, he contacts his old friends who made up the prophecy together to stop 'Friend' who is from the old gang from elementary school.

So do both post-timeskip parts really. Although there isn't a moment where they all meet together until the very end, a lot of time is devoted to the friends trying to reunite with each other after 15 years apart.

Also happens literally, with Kenji's band getting back together for a reunion concert after "Bob Lennon" becomes an underground hit in Friend-ruled Japan.

After Kuma scattered the Straw Hat crew to the four corners of the world, Luffy sends them a secret message to meet in Sabaody after two years, when they all have trained to become stronger.

The Nine Red Scabbards are loyal retainers of the rightful ruler of Wano Country, the late Kozuki Oden. The Scabbards are scattered after Oden's execution (some via Time Travel), but the Straw Hats got to meet five of them before even deciding to go to Wano, and while preparing a rebellion to depose Wano's current shogun, one of their missions is to find those that remained.

The Legend of Black Heaven: Oji Tanaka needs to get his old band back together to operate an alien superweapon, which is powered by rock music.

Ultimately subverted in the latter part of the Golden Age Arc in Berserk.

In the second episode of Strike Witches, the original witches of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing all return to face the new Neuroi threat.

Happens near the end of Tenchi in Tokyo - despite all of their brand-spanking new jobs and hang ups, the girls comes running back to Tokyo when Yugi makes her move, kidnapping Sasami and starting to crystalize the rest of the world.

The Bladebreakers were separated before the start of V-Force, since all members either returned to their homeland or moved to their other parents. When the Saint Shields and Team Psykick show up, the former team beat Takao, Rei and Max in solo battles while Kai is fought to a draw, so they reunite their team.

At the beginning of G-Revolution, the Bladebreakers are disbanded because neither Max nor Rei nor Kai want to stand in Takao's shadow. In the last arc, the members reunite to fight the BEGA's Justice Five. The Bladebreakers take the name G-Revolutions from there on. It should be mentioned that the G-Revolutions have a fighting member more (Daichi) than the original Bladebreakers.

Fairy Tail: After the one year timeskip following the battle with Tartarus, Natsu returns and is horrified to find out that Fairy Tail was disbanded. He and Lucy set off to gather the old members and bring Fairy Tail back together, and they first come across Wendy and Carla, who joined Lamia Scale. Natsu assumes everyone would immediately drop everything and rejoin Fairy Tail in an instant, and is shocked and outraged when Wendy and Carla adamantly refuse to leave Lamia Scale and the friends they made there. Though the two later agree to rejoin after beating their enemies..

In the sequel to Brave10, Saizo, Sasuke, Kakei and Hanzo go to a lot of work to get everyone back together after the Braves fall apart, but they're still short four by the start of the final battle. Then the Big Damn Heroes parade begins.

In Digimon: The Movie's second part, the Digidestined of Digimon Adventure, after a long period of peace, have split apart and leading their own lives, with only Tai and Izzy on hand to monitor and attempt to stop Diaboromon. They both quickly decide to try to get the gang back together as their best bet on defeating this virus-like threat but soon find out that most of the other Digidestined are either busy doing something elsenote Mimi is vacationing in Hawaii, and Joe is taking supplementary classes in school during their break or not in a position to participatenote Matt and TK are in a small rural village with almost no Internet access, and Sora has cut off contact with Tai after feeling insulted at the latter's gift for her birthday. They succeed, but only partially: By the end of the fight, only Matt and TK have actually joined, albeit from a distance via the Internet.

Comic Books

Captain Metropolis tried to do this in a flashback in Watchmen only for it to fall completely flat.

In Wonder Girl Vol. 1 the surviving members of Young Justice band together to help Cassie deal with Hercules and the Female Furies who are trying to force her to help her estranged father Zeus and the other gods. This includes Arrowette who retired from heroics even before the team disbanded and Empress who retired from any heroics not happening in her own back yard when the team disbanded, though of the three founders only Tim helps out as Kon-El and Bart were dead at the time.

Deconstructed in X-Statix: Putting the band back together proves to be a horrible idea that robs everyone of their well-earned happy ending, and gets them all killed.

Played straight in the Giant-Size Special, where Guy and Myles must put together a new team in order to rescue Katie Jones, the daughter of their dead teammate U-Go-Girl.

Agents of Atlas begins with Jimmy Woo reuniting the team he assembled to save President Eisenhower during the 1950's in order to investigate the mysterious Atlas Foundation. As it turned out, the reunion was instigated by the leader of the Foundation, who had chosen Woo as his successor.

In Guardians 2004, Vince Armstrong is forced to reunite his childhood friends when an alien they encountered back when they were kids returns, hunted by other aliens, and seeks their help.

Fan Works

A Growing Affection: During the Invasion of the Sound, Tsunade forces the old team Hizashi; Iruka, Anko, and Yugao, to work together again. By the end of the mission, they have worked out the issues that caused them to break up (except, of course, Hizashi death).

Windfall is about the Mane Six, who had since gone their separate ways as their lives moved on, coming back together for the birth of Fluttershy's first child.

In Pokémon: Nova and Antica, we are treated to a brand-new region in Tenla. Expecting Ash to meet brand new travelling companions? Dead wrong. Misty, Brock, May, and Dawn have all come to Tenla. Ash is more than overjoyed to have this nostalgic homecoming.

In Pokemon: Shadow of Time, after history is 'reset' back to around the first day of Ash's journey with only Ash and his Pokémon remembering the original timeline, a sizeable portion of the fic so far has been dedicated to looking at how Ash's Pokémon in various regions seek each other out with the goal of 'rejoining' him, to the extent that Heracross, Sandile and Hawlucha have retrieved Phanphy, Scraggy and Noibat's eggs so that they will hatch in Ash's ownership.

The Pieces Lie Where They Fell: As with canon, the new Mane Six manage to get the Humane Five to realize they were deliberately targeted and split up by Sunset Shimmer, repairing their bonds.

Of Sheep and Battle Chicken: Played straight and subverted in the third story. While Shepard is playing this trope straight in her actions of reassembling her old team, due to the fact that several of them are operating under assumed identities she is unaware that this is what she is doing until after she finds them.

Earth 27: With the shutdown of the Justice League of America, there were two members (the Question and Captain Atom) that chose to band together. Their goal was to create a new Justice League based in their shared home of Hub City. While they did manage to recruit fresh talent from the Titans (Blue Beetle and Booster Gold) and a young Hub City heroine named Nightshade, they never really got their new Justice League off the ground, with the Question ultimately quitting the team just eight months after it was founded in order to relocate to Gotham City.

Films — Live-Action

The Trope Namerinvoked is The Blues Brothers, in which Jake utters the line "We're putting The Band back together!" several times while gathering the old members of their band for one last performance to save their old orphanage.

Happens again in Blues Brothers 2000, with a few extra additions, though it would've been harder if the band had known why Elwood was getting them back together that time.

The movie Once Upon a Texas Train has it happen twice: once with a band of train robbers and once with a group of retired Texas Rangers recruited to stop them.

An odd subversion of the trope appears in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (parts 1 and 2), which sees Uma Thurman's character visiting each member of her once-lethal team of assassins in their new lives and attempting to kill them all rather than reuniting them.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was slated to feature a similar sequence, with everyone either preparing to retire or move on to other jobs, but they scrapped it and just had a bit of dialogue before the briefing starts.

For the audience, though not the characters, Star Trek (2009), is essentially this trope as well.

In The Muppets, Muppets fans Walter, Gary, and Mary try to get Kermit to get the Muppets back together after learning that Muppet Studios is going to be bought by an oil magnate, in hopes that they can organize a telethon to buy it back. The telethon is unsuccessful, but the group decides to stick together, and they end up getting the Studio back anyways.

The first Scooby-Doo movie had the group disband at the beginning, and then rejoining for another mystery two years later. Also done with the animated movie Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.

The Mighty Ducks sequels has the hockey team regroup for each competition. Between their lack of off-season practice, moving to a higher level, figuring out how to incorporate the new members (as well as compensate for the members they've lost) with each new film, they need to do some adjustments.

Armageddon arranges for this. NASA wants Bruce Willis's character to help their team; he'll only go if he can take all his own band of oil drillers. They have split up across the country — that's what they do when they're on leave. Government force is gently used to put them back together.

In Shaolin Soccer, the protagonist must convince his old training buddies to reunite and begin practicing kung fu again — in order to play soccer. Many of them are of the "unmotivated wash-up" variety, although there's also one who's a businessman comfortable with his new life.

Happens in Uncommon Valor when a wealthy businessman finances a raid to rescue POWs from Vietnam.

A meta-example in the The Hobbit films in which Peter Jackson brings back former The Lord of the Rings cast members. Frodo, Gandalf, Elrond, Gollum, Saruman, Legolas, Galadriel, and the elderly Bilbo are all featured in the films.

Still Crazy features almost every last element of this trope and plays it straight- a minor member of the band instigating it (Tony Costello the keyboardist played by Stephen Rea), the reluctant lynchpin who has since become a family man (Les Wicks the bassist played by Jimmy Nail), the member who's since found unusual employment (Beano Baggett, the drummer played by Timothy Spall, now working in a nursery; 'not with children?' their groupie turned manager exclaims - she's right, it's a plant nursery) and the washed up lead singer who's lost his mojo (Bill Nighy, in a forerunner to his better-known turn as Billy Mack in Love Actually). It even has the member believed dead but returning in the nick of time to save the day (Brian, the band's former lead guitarist played by Bruce Robinson). A textbook case of this trope.

Sort of in Stand Up Guys where former bank robbers Walken, Pacino and Arkin meet up after 28 years and keep telling each other "It's just like the old days", while Pacino adds "It's better" because they appreciate it more now. Though they didn't get together to pull another job they do find a couple of missions as the film progresses.

The World's End: This is said word for word when Gary is gathering everyone up. He even has to specify that he isn't being literal after Stephen pointed out he sold his guitar to buy drugs.

Avengers: Endgame: Five years afterThanos' snap, the remaining Avengers have been split apart doing their own things: Tony has a daughter with Pepper, Clint has become a vigilante, Bruce has been learning to live with the Hulk in one body, Thor has secluded himself in New Asgard out of guilt for failing to stop Thanos, and Steve and Natasha have been working with Rhodey, Rocket, Nebula, Okoye, and Carol to help rebuild the universe. It isn't until Scott escapes the Quantum Realm that Steve and Natasha realize there is a way to bring everyone back, and while some need a bit more convincing, they eventually get everyone back together to make their Time Heist possible.

Literature

20 Years After, the sequel to The Three Musketeers, is both an example and a subversion. Cardinal Mazarin asks d'Artagnan to find his three old friends, who have left the service long since, and convince them to join back and help the Cardinal against his enemies. But only Porthos Jumped at the Call; Athos and Aramis excuse themselves... and we find out several chapters later that the reason is that they are already involved with the other side.

Happened in the Discworld book Thief of Time. It was played straight, in a Discworld book! Anyway, what happens is that the world is about to end, and so Death tries to round up the other three members of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They all refuse, but later come just in time anyway and decide to start kicking Auditor butt instead of heralding the end of the world. This includes the fifth horseman, Kaos, who left before they got big but rejoins just in the nick of time.

The poem Ulysses, by Tennyson, features an old Ulysses contemplating how life sucks now that he has gotten home, and gotten old, and that the people no longer really need him. The rest of the poem is a speech to his old comrades about getting the band back together.

In Zeroes, the story begins with Bellwether working to reassemble the group, which had previously worked together but had broken up several years ago due to a conflict between Bellwether and Scam.

Towards the end of The Long Utopia, all the major players of the Long Earth saga are assembled after spending years pursuing their own interests in different ways. Sister Agnes says it's like a The Traveling Wilburys reunion.

In Raise Some Hell Oliver does this after the Battle of the Morgue, where everyone has split up due to the deep emotional strain that the use of his power put on them. The next few scenes have him confronting the different members of the team.

At the beginning of season 3 of Parks and Recreation, Leslie Knope announces she is "rounding up the team" after the government shutdown.

In Chuck, this occurred with Sarah and the CAT squad, when they team up again against Augusto Gaez.

Several times on Supernatural could be considered this. In the Pilot episode, when Dean breaks in to Sam and Jessica's house to tell Sam their father is missing and that they have to find him. Of course, Sam thinks it's a one time thing. And then Jess dies.

Again in Season 4, when Dean returns from hell and is reunited with Bobby and Sam, as well as introduced to Castiel.

At the the start of Season 6, when Sam gets back from Hell and gets Dean after Dean has taken up residence with Ben and Lisa.

In Season 7 after Castiel's sanity is restored, Team Free Will with the addition of Meg get together to take down the head leviathan, Dick Roman.

And finally again in Season 8 when Dean escapes purgatory, joining up again with Sam and Kevin. And then Castiel comes back from Purgatory via Angel Express and Team Free Will is briefly reunited for a few episodes.

In Season 9 of Stargate SG-1, Cameron makes multiple mentions of 'getting the band back together'.

And when Colonel Carter returns in episode 6, she asks, "but who's the new backup singer?" about Vala.

Season 3 of Stargate Atlantis, The Return Pt. 1 and 2; after being reassigned back to Earth for six weeks when the returned Ancients retake command of Atlantis, the team reunites to reclaim the city from Replicators and prevent it from being destroyed by Stargate Command.

The 2002 revival of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet begins with the surviving members of the old gang (last seen in 1986) getting together for another member's wake. It turns out that he's not really dead, but arranged his wake as a stunt specifically to reassemble the old team. They soon learn that another of the old gang has died — not surprisingly, since the actor who played him had died in 1986.

A season premiere of Bones happens this way, with Brennan, Booth, and the Squint Squad reuniting to help Cam with what was thought to be one case (which turned out to be two). And by the way, CAM is really the lynchpin personality.

Sharpe: Sharpe's Waterloo begins with Sharpe, Harper, Harris and Hagman, the last of the Chosen Men, coming back together from France, Ireland and wherever the other two have been to see Napoleon defeated once and for all.

NCIS: Vance disbands the entire team in a season finale, but Status Quo Is God, and naturally they put the band back together in the season premiere.

Lt. Daniels spends most of Season 2 of The Wire putting the Barksdale detail from Season 1 back together as the new Sobotka detail, which he hopes to eventually turn into a permanent Major Case Unit.

Used as a theme with the ensemble in Leverage. The running gag is that, while each of them used to work solo as criminals, they've gotten hooked on helping people

The plot of comedy-drama Hunting Venus revolves around an early eighties new romantic band getting together again for a reunion twenty years on. Unfortunately they can barely remember how to play their instruments, the lead guitarist has had a sex-change, and nobody can recall how the hit single went.

The trope is mentioned by name but otherwise averted in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Nothing Personal"; following SHIELD's official dissolution, Maria Hill, now working for Stark Industries, tells Coulson, "We're not putting the band back together."

Similarly, in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Visitor", another possible future has an elderly Jake Sisko seeking the former Deep Space 9 crew to help him.

Defied in Star Trek: Picard when Picard is suggested that he recruit his old friends from the Enterprise, he refuses, not wanting to jeopardize them in his new mission. This is also a bit of Leaning on the Fourth Wall as Patrick Stewart refused to do the show if it was going to be some TNG reunion show.

Music

Truth in Television: All the many, many literal bands who have reformed "for one last tour (seriously, this is it, we promise)!"

Of particular note is Aerosmith, who formed in the early 70s and broke up in the 80s largely due to rampant drug use and personality conflicts. After they all went to rehab, the original lineup got back together, have been cranking out album after multi-platinum album ever since, and are still going strong as of 2013.

The Eagles broke up over internal conflicts, but reunited and have been going strong ever since. As Glenn Frey put it:

"We never broke up, we just took a fourteen year vacation."

It's become almost standard Boy Band practice to do at least one comeback album 15-30 years after the band's heyday, once the original fangirls are old enough to be nostalgic for their youth. Expect at least one Replacement Goldfish for a member who's become a successful solo artist/died young/has a non-entertainment career they don't want to walk away from for the time necessary to record an album and go on tour.

This is the point of The Big Reunion, a Reality Show about several bands that made it big in UK during The '90s but eventually broke up, with each band being reunited to perform at a big concert by the end of the series. A lot of meeting of old friends, reopening of old wounds, and eventual reconciliation. All of them end up deciding to restart their careers.

The Post-Hardcore band Finch had originally broken up in 2010, as a result of several false starts to a rumored third album. Two years later, the band members were contacted by their former manager to do some tenth anniversary shows to commemorate the release of the band's debut album, What It Is to Burn. This eventually turned into a tour, and during this time the band started writing songs again. This resulted in the band's reunion, as well as the release of their long-awaited third album, fittingly entitled Back to Oblivion.

The (then) three surviving members of the Fab Four got back together for The Beatles Anthology and finished two of John Lennon's home recordings. "Free as a Bird" required an entire bridge...

X Japan did this in 2007, finally accomplishing it completely in 2010 with the full return of Toshi and the selection of Sugizo as permanent lead guitarist in place of the late hide, and the one-show return of now-late bassist Taiji Sawada.

The quartet of Elton John, guitarist Davey Johnstone, bassist Dee Murray and drummer Nigel Olsson, along with lyricist Bernie Taupin and producer Gus Dudgeon, helped create Elton's most critically and commercially successful period (Honky Château, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy). Elton broke the band up in 1975, which led to a Dork Age in Elton's career which was only halted when Elton rehired Johnstone, Murray and Olsson in the band, hired Taupin full-time and made the Too Low for Zero album in 1983. The album was critically and commercially successful, and thanks to MTV videos like "I'm Still Standing" and "I Guess That's Why The Call It The Blues", led to a Career Resurrection in the mid-eighties.

A better example for Led Zeppelin would be their 2007 reunion concert, documented in the film/CD Celebration Day.

Pink Floyd later re-reunited one last time at Live 8 in 2005. It now seems likely to *really* have been the last time, owing in large part to the 2008 death of keyboardist Rick Wright.

All five members of country-pop band Restless Heart reunited in 2003 for one more album, and they tour sporadically to this day. They pretty much broke up in 1993, save for four of them reuniting temporarily in 1998 to make new songs for a Greatest Hits Album.

Luna Sea and Phantasmagoria reunited for the hide memorial summit in 2008, Luna Sea also for a Christmas concert in 2007. Of course, then they reunited for real in 2010.

At Motörhead's 10th anniversary concert (documented in the album/video The Birthday Party), Lemmy had ALL of the former members of Motorhead onstage for the finale.

In a weird and appropriate example, Tenacious D parody and exaggerate (MASSIVELY) their own break-up and reunion as seen here.

Having had more different line-ups than an Italian coalition government, and at least thirty-five different members over the years, Dave Brock attempted to create the Hawkestra, bringing together everyone who had at one time or another played with space-rockers Hawkwind. Alas, it only served to remind everyone as to why the band had broken up and reformed with new members so many times. The exercise broke up in disastrous acrimony, with people reviving old arguments, grievances, grudges, vendettas and blood-feuds, placing the blame on each other, but almost universally at that bastard Brock. Division of the revenues from the poorly-received Hawkestra gigs caused even more rows, and the repercussions simmer on today.

Blue Öyster Cult brought back Albert and Joe Bouchard, and Allen Lanier for their 40th anniversary show in November 2012. This ended up being the last ever performance featuring all five original members due to Lanier's death in August 2013.

A meta example in Donald Fagen's song "H Gang", about an "orphan girl with that crazy red hair" putting her old band back together after she gets out of jail.

This is essentially what happened with Cult Leader. After Gaza broke up (primarily due to rape accusations aimed at Jon Parkin; while nothing has ever been confirmed or denied, it has been strongly hinted that they were completely genuine), Anthony Lucero, Mike Mason, and Casey Hansen decided to continue on under a new name, and after drafting in Sam Richards on bass and having Lucero switch to vocals, Cult Leader was born.

Van Halen managed to pull it twice after the Gary Cherone era imploded after the critical and commercial failure of their sole studio album, Van Halen III. Eddie Van Halen would go through drug and alcohol addictions, survive tongue cancer (he has since replaced cigarettes with vaping) and a divorce to longtime wife ValerieBertinelli. Then in 2004 came a reunion with previous singer Sammy Hagar, with new 'Van Hagar' compositions for a Greatest Hits Album and a tour. But said gigs would be marked by in-fighting (for starters, bassist Michael Anthony only returned because Hagar demanded it) and Eddie's re-emerging alcoholism, leading to another disbandment, followed by Sammy and Michael forming Chickenfoot. Eddie would sober up, rekindle talks with original singer David Lee Roth, and begin a world tour with Eddie's son Wolfgang replacing Anthony. Wolfgang would even convince daddy that the band could make another album, and A Different Kind Of Truth, Van Halen's first new album in fifteen years and its first with Roth since 1984, would be released to commercial and critical success in 2012.

Gav of Miracle of Sound made a song for Overwatch called "Get The Gang Back Together", focusing on the heroes and the family they once shared.

Soft Cell attempted to do this in the early Noughties. However, the reunion didn't work out and they disbanded again after releasing only one album of new material and having a couple of minor hits on the UK singles chart. Marc Almond now believes the reunion was a mistake.

WCW: After Kevin Nash lost a "LoserRetires from Wrestling" match Nash & Scott Hall were spotted in the audience one Nitro. When asked by the Roving Reporter what's going on since retirement, Nash said, "We're putting the band back together." Nobody could figure out what he meant by that until a few weeks later when the new nWo debuted.

For those unfamiliar with wrestling, Hall and Nash were longtime best friends and had worked together in WWE as Razor Ramon (Hall) and Diesel (Nash).

Hall and Nash like this trope. They've reformed the Outsiders in TNA a couple times, and as of 2010, have formed "The Band" with fellow Kliq member Sean "X Pac" Waltman.

At the start of 2014 The Authority reformed Evolution with Randy Orton, Triple H, and Batista. Though in this case it's somewhat of a miracle they can function as a cohesive unit considering that neither Orton nor Batista are rookies anymore, but stars on par with Hunter himself, with a lot more experience. Add in the fact that the egos of all three are gigantic, and it makes you wonder why they bothered to reform at all. It doesn't help that, unlike Hall and Nash, none of the members of Evolution have the best history with each other; Randy is the most notable example, considering that his ousting from the original Evolution back in '04 was his Start of Darkness, an event that took him seven years to get over.

In 2014, Kenny Dykstra, Jaden "Johnny" Jeter and "The Giant Killer" Mike "Mikey" Mondo did a most unexpected thing and went back to the gimmick that was believed to have stunted their careers: The Spirit Squad. Perhaps due to their growth as wrestlers, the male cheerleaders have been better received the second time around, not that that was a high hurdle to climb.

An interesting videogame example comes from Final Fantasy VI, where your party gets split up upon entering the World of Ruin, and you (as former second banana Celes) have to put the party back together. Since it's a game, you don't have to — but it's expected. Includes a classic case of the face of the party, Terra, having retired from fighting and being unwilling to rejoin.note Incidentally, Terra never actually takes charge until she's re-recruited; the leader role until The End of the World as We Know It was actually shared by Locke (who was the Supporting Protagonist for that half) and Edgar.

In the sequel to Final Fantasy IV, The After Years, the Crystals chapter sees Edge, Rydia, and newcomer Luca, guided by a mysterious Man in Black (Golbez) trying to find their old friends (and in Rydia's case, her missing Eidolons) in order to combat the new threat.

Star Fox Command is a video game example. Various events have led to Fox being all alone by the beginning of the game. Although he's really hesitant to do it at first (going as far to hire his rival Wolf instead in one branch), there's at least one branch of the storyline where Fox gets together the entire original Star Fox team.

In Persona 3: FES, two months after the Main Character has sealed away Nyx, the ex-SEES members get back together for one last dinner in the dorm before it closes down. While they're there, they get trapped inside the dorm by a mysterious force and have to relive the same day over and over again. They then discover a stairway leading to a new Shadow-infested dungeon beneath the dining room table...

Super Robot Wars W features this in the second half of the game, and some members have been building up for it, too.

Also happens the sub series to varying degrees (Alpha, OG, Z)

Super Robot Wars Alpha has a slow reassembling in each sequel along with recovering the high end mechs used at the end game (with the reasons being either repair/maintence, being too powerful for peacetime), though not everyone comes back (due to meta issues).

Super Robot Wars Original Generation has similar processes to Alpha in its sequels, though it's more gradual. In contrast to Alpha, the great majority of the party retains their endgame mechs.

Super Robot Wars Z: Mainly happens in Z2 where in the face of events, the various allied groups start uniting when Zero officially reunites them as ZEXIS.

A variation happens in Super Smash Bros. Brawl's adventure mode, almost everyone becomes an inanimate trophy, and the few remaining characters have to find them to reanimate them and get them back into the group.

The second half of Breath of Fire III opens with Garr seeking out Ryu, and the two of them setting out to find the other previous party members. Unlike Final Fantasy VI, the plot is totally linear; you cannot progress past X area until you've recruited party member Y.

In SoulCalibur III's Chronicles of the Sword mode, after a Time Skip, the player loses their army for a few levels. A few chapters before the end though, the player has the option to get all but one (whom they killed 2 chapters ago) back by befriending them to knock them out of Soul Edge induced mind control.

Another video game example in Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, right after Geldoblame is revealed to have been manipulated by Melodia, Fadroh, and Kalas, the entire party ends up separated and scattered across the five floating islands, and Xelha has to rescue the other four members before you can travel to Wazn to get the next Plot Coupon.

Subverted in Mass Effect 2: after the Illusive Man offers Commander Shepard a list of candidates for his/her new crew, you can tell him to shove it because you already have a Badass Crew from the first game. However, it turns out none of them are available anymore (Kaidan/Ashley are on a top-secret mission for the Alliance, Garrus slipped off the radar, Tali is leading an expedition for the Flotilla, Wrex reigns on Tuchanka, and Liara is on a crusade against the Shadow Broker). Doubly subverted, however, when some of your old crew do come back, namely, Joker, Dr. Chakwas, Garrus, Tali, and (temporarily) Liara.

Kaidan / Ashley and Liara return as full party members in ME3, as do Garrus and Tali provided they survived the Suicide Mission (Wrex is still busy leading the krogan). You can also pull in a few Normandy NPCs from both of the previous games.

Taking this trope even further is half the point of the Citadel DLC, where all of the squad members you've ever had (who are still alive) can fight with you in the Armax Arsenal Arena, and the DLC concludes with you throwing a big party for all of them. It's also significant that Wrex returns as a full squad member for the main story mission; play your cards right, and you can have all surviving squad members from the original game* Kaidan/Ashley, Garrus, Wrex, Tali and Liara back in your squad and fully invoke the trope.

Taken rather literally in the Co-op Story Mode of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Halfway into it, your band splits up (well, the singer and drummer at least), and then they meet again three months later and rejoin. The subsequent song block is even titled "Getting the Band Back Together".

Star Trek: Elite Force II starts with the Voyager coming home triumphantly... and your Hazard Team being disbanded by an asshole bureaucrat with Big Ol' Eyebrows who thinks that all's well in Federation space. Some time later, Munro, your Player Character, is teaching combat tactics to cadets at the Academy, when Picard comes along and, after telling to bureaucrat to shove off, asks you to rebuild the Hazard Team, this time on the Enterprise-E. All but one former team members come back (plus two new ones), and the one remaining is later found by pure coincidence.

In Borderlands 2, there's an achievement called "Got The Band Back Together" for reuniting the Vault Hunters of the first game back in Sanctuary.

In Fallout: New Vegas, Arcade Gannon's companion quest has you reunite the Enclave Remnants, some of which previously appeared in Fallout 2, to support your faction of choice in the Second Battle of Hoover Dam.

In Exile for the PC Engine / Turbo Duo Super CD system, Sadler already has a Four Man Team. All you must do is talk to them and they'll join you shortly afterwards, popping in and out of the plot for the rest of the game. In the sequel, Exile: Wicked Phenomenon, Sadler's friends are scattered across the Middle East. Rumi is believed to be dead, but turns up in Baghdad. Fakhyle and Kindhi arrive a short time later in a Big Damn Heroes moment (complete with anime cutscene) to save Sadler and Rumi from the first boss' trap and allowing a fair 1-on-1 fight. After the boss is dead, the gang from the first game is officially back together - and this time, they're all playable.

This is the premise for the third LittleBigPlanet game. You have to reunite the three legendary heroes, Oddsock, Toggle and Swoop. There's even a trophy for doing so, aptly named "Put The Band Back Together."

Saints Row IV: The bulk of the gameplay consists of freeing and recruiting members of your old gang.

Boss: We're getting the band back together and then we're gonna kill Zinyak.

Overwatch has this with the titular Overwatch, a peacekeeping organization that stood for 25 years after the Omnic Crisis, but was disbanded five years before the current events of the story, and made illegal by the United Nations. The plot officially kicks off when one member reinstates the organization illegally, despite the risk in prosecution in doing so.

The dungeons in Guild Wars 2 tell the story of the attempts to reunite the members of the guild Destiny's Edge in the face of the new threat of the Elder Dragons.

The first half of The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is reuniting Class VII (except for Crow), who were scattered across half the country in the Time Skip between games. An optional sidequest in the second half is tracking down various people from the other classes who were similar scattered about.

The Trespasser DLC of Dragon Age: Inquisition does this for the Inquisitor and their inner circle, as it takes place roughly two years after the end of the main game. Everyone except for the advisory council has left the Inquisitor and gone off to do their own thing, but they're all summoned to one spot to provide testimony in a hearing about the future of the Inquisition. The first arc of gameplay involves the Inquisitor going around the area, finding all of their friends, and having friendly/affectionate reunions; there are codex entries to collect for each which explains what they've been doing in the meantime, which in some cases is determined by player choices during the main game.

One of the main themes in Kingdom Hearts III is Sora reuniting the heroes who died (Ventus, Xion), vanished (Aqua, Roxas), or had their lives ruined (Terra, Saix) because of Master Xehanort or Organization XIII. The Wayfinder and Sea Salt trios are reunited, and Saix is redeemed. But it comes with a price of the Island trio's separation when Sora disappeared and Kairi went into stasis, leaving only Riku, albeit for unrelated reasons.

Streets of Rage 4 takes place 10 years after the 3rd game and the heroes had already parted ways to do their own thing, effectively retiring from brawling against criminals. However, a new Syndicate has risen up and is causing trouble again, which prompts Blaze to contact the other protagonists for help. Axel returns after having spent years studying and meditating. Adam is working with a special investigation team, so he can't help directly, but he sends his daughter, Cherry, to fight in his place. Dr. Zan is caught up in his own thing and sends his protege, Floyd, in his place. Max is unable to help due to being brainwashed by the Syndicate. Effectively, only half of the band (Blaze and Axel) are able to answer to the threat of the new criminals.

Web Animation

The Red vs. Blue Recollections trilogy begins with us being told that most of the old characters had been relocated after the end of season five and so Washington has to re-recruit some of the team members. Although, throughout all three movies, we've never had the entire team restored. Some characters have also been apparently Killed Off for Real, but we've yet to see if it sticks. Other characters like Church and Sheila seem to have been replaced with copies like Epsilon and F.I.L.S.S.

Web Comics

Parodied in one Penny Arcade story arc. Tycho and Gabe briefly break up and try to do their own comic strips, but both fail miserably. They then have a conversation about "getting the band back together". They then ask their guitarist — who presumably provides the strip's music — if he wants to get back together with them.

Necessary Monsters: Jonathon putting his team of covert monster-cops back together is part of the opening act.

Homestuck: Meenah is trying to do this with a band who have been dead for a very long time. Sadly for her, the band in question is more or less evenly divided into people smart enough to have a better plan than taking on an invulnerable demon with a head-down charge, and people who are too traumatised, sex-obsessed, creepy, evil or otherwise dysfunctional to successfully boil water, let alone kill Lord English.

The plot in the Team Fortress 2comics involves Ms. Pauling trying to locate all of the mercenaries after Grey Mann fired them.

Skin Horse: Foreshadowed in this strip, one of the creators having returned from having had a baby.

How The Mike O'Meara Show got started as a podcast. Mike, Robb and Buzz ran it as a radio show until CBS fired them. About a year later Oscar Santana, another fired radio personality, convinced them to bring the show back as a podcast, and Mike brought Oscar along as a new cast member.

In Worm, the Undersiders remained active throughout the Time Skip even though Taylor, the leader, pulled a HeelFace Turn. However, after Taylor fails to prevent the end of the world, and the remaining pockets of humanity almost immediately turn on one another, she rejoins the surviving Undersiders (Tattletale, Imp, and Bitch), along with several members that joined when she was away (Parian and Foil) and a few new faces entirely (Canary and Taylor's former Arch-Enemy Shadow Stalker), and decides to take down as many chaotic elements as they can.

The podcast, This Week In Tech, was started by Leo Laporte in 2005, getting some the crew of Tech TV's The Screen Savers back together. In fact the first few episodes were unofficially called the Revenge of the Screen Savers, until they formally named the podcast, as G4 (the new identity of the Tech TV network) held onto the trademark. Over a decade later, the podcast network that grew around This Week In Tech, T Wi T, acquired the Screen Savers trademark and launched a video podcast, The New Screen Savers.

Epoch of Roll To Breathe attempts to get his retired superhero mentor, Hal, back into the game with his old team. When Hal finds out, he is so incredibly offended that Epoch would interfere with his life that he threatens to kill him.

The kickoff for The Aquabats! Super Show! transitioning into a web series took the form of a series of videos in which the MC Bat Commander had to track down the other members of The Aquabats!, who had since gotten "real jobs" to support themselves after their TV show went under.

Western Animation

An episode of Phineas and Ferb is entitled "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together!", in which the Flynn children try to reassemble the band "Love Händel" (a parody of 80's music) in time for their parents' anniversary. Interestingly, one of the songs from this episode got nominated for a freaking Emmy for best original song.

Metalocalypse plays this straight, when Pickles decides to put back together his old Glam Rock band, Snakes N' Barrels.

The Teen Titans episode "How Long Is Forever?" had Starfire disappearing until Twenty Years Into The Future. When attempting to find her friends, we discover that Cyborg's main power ran out, and so he's trapped in the tower; Beast Boy was sold to the circus (and went bald); Raven was put into an asylum; and Robin became Nightwing.

The King of the Hill episode "Bwah My Nose" had this when Hank and the gang demand a rematch by playing flag football against the team they lost against in the high school state championship who are now gloating them every year. Hank called up every teammate to participate in the rematch.

The first season finale of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated has the gang disbanded—Fred to look for his real parents, Daphne to wallow in misery with her family, Velma to ponder what she's done (not coming forward about Angel Dynamite's real identity, Shaggy off to military school, and Scooby Doo being sent to a prison-like "farm." The first arc of season two focused on Scooby's promise at the conclusion of the season one finale: getting gang back together and tracking down Professor Pericles, who has two pieces of the Planispheric Disc.

Regular Show in the episode "Exit 9B", after everyone at the park except Mordecai and Rigby are brainwashed by GBF Jr., the two end up traveling two months into the future where they have to find everyone and unbrainwash them to save the park.

Parodied in an episode of Angela Anaconda. Angela goes to her friends to put their band back together to win a talent show. Flash Back to a shot of them as toddlers in a pretend band with Angela demanding they call themselves "Angela and her Bandacondas", to which all the rest start crying over. Her friends unanimously refuse with a Big "NO!".

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